Games Happy

Winter is one in all my favourite seasons. Granted, I dwell in a area of the US the place I get to expertise the 4 seasons, so understanding the climate will change quickly sufficient makes the inconveniences of every season extra tolerable. Nonetheless, I all the time favored winter a bit rising up: break from college, ice hockey, and sizzling cocoa have been the components of the season I loved essentially the most. It’s one thing that has carried into my life as an grownup, even when the explanations have shifted.

I don’t know if composer Motoi Sakuraba –  recognized for his contributions to Tales, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, and plenty of, many extra –  is a fan of winter, however among the tracks he created that happen in snowy scenes or wintery locales appear to seize the icy comforts of the season. A lot in order that I’ve compiled an inventory of some private favorites beneath. Have a look and be happy to incorporate your personal favorites within the feedback. 

White Labyrinth, Tales of Future: 

I keep in mind taking part in this recreation for the primary time when it was launched for the PSX in 1998. It was a Christmas cash buy primarily based solely on the field artwork. It might have been my first publicity to Sakuraba’s work, and it was impactful. This monitor specifically units the scene for one of many recreation’s starting areas. It’s moody, tense, and icy, reminding the chilly might be dangerous or worse. It’s superior.

A Snow Scape, Tales of Future:

The place the track above is chilly and deadly, this monitor is the polar reverse. This city theme is heat, inviting, virtually like a cup of sizzling cocoa or tea whereas watching the blizzard exterior the window. It’s that second the place you’ll be able to admire the sight of untouched snow piling up exterior – particularly earlier than you keep in mind you’re the one accountable for cleansing the snow in just a bit bit. It’s a pleasant companion piece, reminding us that winter might be cozy and heat, too.

Freezing Wind, Tales of Come up:

Sakuraba won’t have the identify recognition within the West that others have loved: mainly Nobuo Uematsu of Ultimate Fantasy fame. Nonetheless his fingers have touched many in style RPG collection, chief amongst them together with the Tales and Star Ocean collection, and spanning the course of many years. 

This monitor – Freezing Wind – is evocative of being on a grand voyage and coming throughout a perilously icy trek the place the frigidity is just matched by its splendor.  There are vocal thrives which underscore the grandeur. It’s virtually as for those who can really feel the bristle of the wind throughout your face, presumably the one a part of your physique not lined in dense layers of heat garments. 

Lucarda Mountain Street Space, Valkyrie Elysium

This performs throughout one of many sequences set in Lucarda, a mountainous area within the recreation. The sport’s soundtrack is neat within the sense every space’s theme has two variations: one for exploration and a better vitality model that shifts when fight begins. The battle model of this theme lacks the dourness featured on this monitor. There’s a sense of apprehension or lurking hazard on this snowy monitor the place enemies can shortly seem. I loved this recreation for what it was in 2022, and felt Sakuraba’s contributions helped the sport really feel extra aligned with the opposite video games within the collection. It was a pleasant shock to listen to a lot from Sakuraba – in veteran collection, no much less – in 2022 between this and Star Ocean The Divine Pressure. 

The Snow-Lined Metropolis, Golden Solar

The identify definitely says all of it. It jogs my memory of White Labyrinth from Tales of Future, too. This options a few of Sakuraba Signature motifs, which you both love or hate. I wrote this text, so I feel it provides you an thought the place I fall on this difficulty. 

Winterly Imil, Golden Solar:

Have you ever performed Golden Solar? The collection deserves some extra love, particularly from Nintendo. That is one other sleepy winter piece. There ought to positively be a scene involving characters resting at a log cabin inn set to this monitor. Ideally we see smoke popping out of the chimney when the “resting at an inn” ditty performs. 

The World of Ice & Snow, Tales of Berseria 

We’re exploring an ice cave with this one, proper? We’ve to be. If not an ice cave, then it must be a snowy mountain. It has all the trimmings: regular crescendo, some twinkly thrives that sound just like the glimmer of an icicle, and a way that somebody – or one thing – is ready to assault close by.  

Sohma, the Snow-Lined Expanse, Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness

Is Star Ocean 5 my least favourite Star Ocean recreation? Actually. Are we going to carry it in opposition to Sakuraba? Not immediately. I like this monitor as a result of I can see the throughline between the snowy themes of the Nineteen Nineties Tales and Star Ocean video games and the video games that got here out ten or twenty years afterward. Some folks complain about Sakuraba’s themes sounding too comparable, others contemplate him constant. This monitor has all the weather of a Sakuraba winter banger: some twinkly sounds, a crescendo, equal components trepid and tenacious on the notion of exploring. You don’t even must undergo by way of the sport to take heed to it, both.

White the Coronary heart, Star Ocean Second Story

In case you rushed by way of Star Ocean 2 within the Nineteen Nineties or final month, you might have slipped over Princebridge, mainly a college or library of the sport’s lore. That is the monitor that performs while you go to the snowy location on a hunt for data. It sounds chilly and somewhat foreboding, as if it is aware of you might be about to find some historic secrets and techniques. They will’t be that historic or secret, since they’re sitting in a guide on a shelf in a library, however they have been historic and secret to the characters till only a second in the past. 

A Snow Mild, Tales of Symphonia

Extra whimsical than among the different tracks, which is a pleasant change of tempo. This appears like  ice skating on a crisp winter night, or being exterior for a snowball battle earlier than coming inside for some sizzling chocolate. It jogs my memory of a scene in Magnificence and the Beast the place they’re exterior, taking part in within the snow and falling in love. 

Biting Chilly, Tales of Phantasia 

This man loves , easy identify, which I can admire. I like this theme considerably higher than I like this recreation, however largely as a result of I performed it half translated on an emulator on a HP operating Home windows 98 in sixth grade. Do you keep in mind the iOS model of this recreation? Somebody must be arrested for it.

Snowstorm Sacrament, Star Ocean The Divine Pressure

That is what impressed this piece. Listening to it in 2022 proper after taking part in Valkyrie Elysium, I couldn’t assist however take into consideration how Sakuraba’s music – the wintry, snowy themes specifically – can evoke such a sense. This track specifically jogs my memory of White Labyrinth from Tales of Future as properly. There’s that sense of looming hazard related to the icy chill, intrusive ideas about what might occur if caught within the chilly after darkish. 

The Boundary Between Snow and Ice, Everlasting Sonata

A standout monitor in an ideal, enjoyable recreation about music. Have you ever performed this recreation?  This one has the trimmings of the perfect components of winter – it’s full of caprice and heat and simply has a tinge of a Christmas spirit. It appears like making cookies for Santa with the children or taking them to see the lights yet another time earlier than the tip of the yr. 

What tracks by Sakuraba offer you that cozy cozy winter vibe, or remind you of a deep freeze? Let me know within the feedback.